Yesterday's bitter Irish Amateur Swimming Association (IASA) a.g.m. was accurately summed up by former Ulster Branch president Tim Wyatt. "I have never in my career seen an organisation tear itself apart in such a dramatic, unpleasant and brutal way," he said.
In a prolonged morning session of bloodletting in the Ashling Hotel in Dublin, the divisive issues of the IASA finally bubbled to the surface in public. The now former president of the swimming association, Mary O'Malley, at one stage took the floor to condemn the past behaviour of her executive members.
"The Leinster Branch informed the IASA in 1992 about allegations that had been made against George Gibney. The IASA didn't help in any way. They (Leinster Branch) were left all on their own to deal with the situation," she said.
O'Malley went on to say how the organisation had let her down personally and marginalised her throughout the last 10 months in the wake of the imprisonment of another former Olympic coach, Derry O'Rourke. O'Rourke was sentenced to 12 years for child abuse last February.
"As usual, I didn't get the support I should have got as president," O'Malley said. "I went to the executive of the association in September or October and objected to the way I was being treated. I thought I was being totally undermined. I wrote a letter of resignation, which I still have, but was told that I would have no way of putting my point of view across if I resigned then."
At one stage during the proceedings O'Malley walked to the microphone and declared: "I feel that as a full executive we should all step down and allow Swim Ireland to go forward." At that stage O'Malley was still president, but she was ignored by the chair and voting proceeded for the interim Swim Ireland body, which was formed to take the new organisation as far as April 24th, when elections will again take place for executive positions. Yesterday's interim elections were established after it had been argued that members had been disenfranchised because clubs did not receive literature about the articles of the new body in time and could not mandate their members to vote.
Throughout the day allegations of negligence were aimed at those who administrated the organisation during the years of Gibney and O'Rourke. Leinster delegate Ben Keily held up a photocopy of an executive committee meeting held on January 10th, 1993. The minutes stated: "Correspondence from the Leinster Branch, Mr G O'Toole and the association's legal adviser dated December 1992 was brought to the attention of the executive by the president. During discussion on this item the national coach, the national development officer and the PRO were not present. It was felt that no action should be considered by the executive until the judicial process had taken its course."
The letter referred to was that of European silver medallist Gary O'Toole detailing abuses carried out by Gibney against young members of the association. It prompted several delegates to demand why Gibney was subsequently employed for a swimming trip to East Kilbride the following March.
Alice McKibbin, the new president of Swim Ireland, was listed as having attended the meeting, but she strongly denied all knowledge of the nature of the details of O'Toole's letter and the charges against Gibney.
"The letter did not name the coach and did not specify the complaint. I did not see the letter or the details in the letter. It said a coach was being investigated by the Garda. I find it disconcerting that they have made allegations against me, but my conscience is clear. I have not done anything wrong," she said.
"We will not forget what happened to those children and we do sympathise. I am a mother with children myself. We must admit it happened, but we can't erase the facts of the past."
On several occasions calls from the floor for what was loosely termed "the old body" to move aside and allow new faces to take over were robustly defended. But there was clear division even between a number of executive members of the old IASA. During the height of the debate, executive member Wally Clarke was involved in an angry exchange with George Smith, a director, over the association's accounts:
Clarke also stated unequivocally to the meeting: "I was not and never have been a party to appointing a child abuser to any post." The general tone of the meeting was anger and recrimination. A delegate from Sandycove, Dublin, Bertie O'Brien called for mass resignations.
"Individuals in this organisation have disgraced it," he said. "It shouldn't be glossed over in two minutes because we've to discuss the articles of a new association. We need change and fundamental change." A spokeswoman for parents and victims, Maura Cunningham, said afterwards she was "disgusted" with the outcome and pointed to a number of issues in the new Swim Ireland constitution which did not adhere to the results of a Government inquiry carried out last June by senior council Roderick Murphy.
At this stage 20 positions have been filled in the new body, but only until the April 24th elections. Officials urged members to attend that meeting in numbers in order to vote for officials who they want to represent them long-term in the new organisation. The articles of Swim Ireland have now been accepted and the IASA no longer exists. That alone is a step forward for an association still clearly torn apart.
